Malcolm J. Rogers Papers
Finding aid created by Museum of Us staff using RecordEXPRESS
Museum of Us
2022
1350 El Prado
Balboa Park
San Diego, California 92101
(619) 239-2001
museum@museumofus.org
https://museumofus.org/
Title: Malcolm J. Rogers Papers
Dates: 1916-1958
Collection Number: 1928.001
Creator/Collector:
Rogers, Malcolm J. (Malcolm Jennings), 1890-1960
Extent: 10 linear feet
Repository:
Museum of Us
San Diego, California 92101
Abstract: This collection primarily documents Malcolm J. Rogers's archaeological work, mostly during his tenure at the San Diego Museum
of Man. It includes excavation notes, drawings, notebooks, correspondence, and publications.
Language of Material: English
The collection is open to on-site researchers. Research visits must be arranged with the collections department in advance.
One binder containing records of a site with human remains has been restricted in accordance with museum policy. Additional
permissions are required for access.
The museum can only claim physical ownership of the collection. Permission for publication is given on behalf of the San Diego
Museum of Man as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply permission of the copyright holder,
which must also be obtained by the researcher.
[Identification of item]. Malcolm J. Rogers Papers. Collection Number: 1928.001. Museum of Us
Rogers was a San Diego Museum of Man staff member whose papers were deposited with several accessions of artifacts and archaeological
materials.
Biography/Administrative History
Malcolm Jennings Rogers (1890-1960) was born in New York, where he studied mining geology at Syracuse University. He moved
to Escondido, California in 1919 and became a citrus farmer. He soon discovered a series of stone artifacts on his property
in 1919, which he later termed the San Dieguito Complex. In 1929, he joined the San Diego Museum of Man as a curator. He was
also a field archaeologist, obtaining a grant from the Smithsonian for the first systematic study of prehistoric cultures
along the Southern California coast. During his time at the San Diego Museum of Man between 1929-1945 and later 1958-1960,
Rogers served as field archaeologist, curator, acting director, and director of the museum.
Rogers' fieldwork included extensive survey and excavation work in the coastal zone of San Diego County and northwestern Baja
California, as well as throughout Arizona, Utah, and Nevada. He identified and named the San Dieguito, La Jolla, Amargosa,
and Yuman archaeological complexes. He also produced one of the earliest ethnoarchaeological studies of pottery-making among
the native peoples of the region.
Scope and Content of Collection
The collection primarily consists of Rogers’s documentation of his field work, including field notebooks, journals, maps,
drawings, photographs of archaeological sites, and lists of artifacts excavated at each site. Rogers deposited many of the
excavated artifacts at the San Diego Museum of Man, so the records provide contextual information about several objects in
our collections. Rogers’s maps, photographs, and notebooks also provide further information about archaeological sites, including
topography and his methods and approach at each site. Other contents include correspondence, lecture notes, ethnographic research
data, and publications.
Several of the journals and notebooks are extremely fragile, so reference copies have been made. These reference binders are
housed in boxes 12 and 13.
Approximately 100 photographs are housed in 1928.001.0187, a photograph album housed in folder 35 in box 11. The remaining
2,500 photographs are housed separately on shelf G3 and are arranged by archaeological site. A hand-written index of these
additional photographs was compiled in the 1990’s, and is housed in box 14.
323 maps, including regional maps and maps of archaeological sites, have been cataloged in CollectionSpace. For more information
about accessing Rogers’s photographs and maps, please contact collections staff at collections@museumofman.org
Anthropology
Archaeology
Archaeologists
California, Southern
Paleo-Indians
Diegueño Indians
Kamia Indians
Yuman pottery
San Dieguito culture
San Diego Museum of Man